Dear Family, “Dude, has anyone ever told you you look exactly like Rick Carlisle?” The question was posed to me as I walked along Ellsworth Avenue in Downtown Silver Spring by a stranger sitting on the sidewalk between the entrances to Ben & Jerry’s and Noodles & Company. “You’re talking to me?” I asked. “Yeah….
Author: Timothy Willis
Managing Editor of The Famlet Monthly
Vol. 24, No. 5
Dear Family, [Before getting into the mundanity of my life this month, I should open by expressing my sincere gratitude for what appears to be the gradual recovery of my 17-year-old nephew who has been hospitalized at Children’s National Medical Center for the past week with what I believe can be characterized as a life-threatening…
Vol. 24, No. 4
Dear Family, Sophie is home! Having bid adieu to Heritage Halls on Wednesday afternoon, she spent the night with Hannah & JT, who drove her to the airport on Thursday morning. She caught the 11:45 Southwest nonstop from Salt Lake to BWI (which at certain times of year could probably just be called “the BYU…
Vol. 24, No. 3
Dear Family, In accordance with CDC guidance, I hugged Mom and Dad earlier this month for the first time in over a year. One could argue that more momentous events have transpired since my last dispatch. But I’m the editor here and this is what we’re leading with. The close physical contact was occasioned by…
Vol. 24, No. 2
Dear Family, Months like this one remind me that Dante may have been onto something in Inferno when he depicts the ninth (i.e., the worst) circle of hell not as fire and brimstone, but as an extremely cold place where Satan is trapped in ice. Worrying about our Texas relatives, I was reminded of the…
Vol. 24, No. 1
Dear Family, Even though I’ve never conducted a proper analysis on phrases like, “I prefer to steer clear of politics on Facebook,” I feel reasonably confident asserting that they are followed by the word but and a political pronouncement approximately 100 percent of the time. Longtime readers of my letters with unusually good memories may…
Vol. 23, No. 12
Dear Family, I bought my first pair of reading glasses this month. And getting them at Costco meant that I actually bought my first three pairs of reading glasses this month. It’s impossible to pick up just one of anything at Costco, and I’m kind of surprised I didn’t have to get a 12-pack. But…
Vol. 23, No. 11
Dear Family, A week ago, the prophet invited us to turn social media into a gratitude journal by posting each day for a week about “what you are grateful for, whom you are grateful for, and why you are grateful.” I did not succeed in following this counsel. I typically post to social media between…
Vol. 23, No. 10
Dear Family, Hannah vowed to Crystal earlier this month that she would never allow her to live in a nursing home. (The vow reportedly did not mention anything about me.) In addition to her full-time job at the Utah State Hospital, which she loves, Hannah also occasionally pulls shifts at a private nursing home, which…
Vol. 23, No. 9
Dear Family, In keeping with what is perhaps America’s most universal and inescapable rite of passage, Crystal opened her AARP welcome letter this week. She doesn’t turn 50 for another month and seems unperturbed by the whole thing. I mention it here only because I know it will make my mother feel old, even though…